


Short stories about gift giving

by cease



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 09:26:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3351563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cease/pseuds/cease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yunho and Changmin give presents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 6 February

6 February  


Somewhere along the way, they agreed not to get each other birthday presents. There was no need, they reasoned, because they had been together as TVXQ for so long, were going to continue together for even longer, that presents would just become an unnecessary burden.  


But it had been a particularly good year - a year of celebrations and of reaching new records – that Changmin decides he should at least give Yunho _something_.  


Well, that’s only partly true.  


The actual truth is that on the way to meet Yunho, Changmin is waiting for his coffee when he spots a single strawberry cupcake in the café display cabinet. He remembers the date and thinks it would be hilarious to give it to Yunho for his birthday, after all Yunho's weakness for strawberries will forever be funny.  


And, because it has been a good year, he buys a candle too.

  


Yunho doesn't look particularly impressed with the cupcake. He looks at Changmin sadly.

‘I don’t remember raising you to be so stingy. You could have at least brought me an actual cake.’  


Changmin pulls out a single candle and sticks it on top of the cupcake.  


Yunho sighs audibly.  


‘Changminnie, you are short quite a few candles.’  


‘Shush,’ Changmin waves a hand at him. ‘I’m being considerate. At your age, I don’t want to exhaust you brain with unnecessary arithmetic.’  


Yunho just rolls his eyes.  


‘Sing me happy birthday then.’  


Changmin sings for him, loudly and intentionally off tune and then softly and grinning so madly his cheeks hurts.  


When Yunho leans in to blow out the single candle, he pauses to make his birthday wish.  


Yunho wishes that such simple joys could continue forever. He wishes for more birthdays spent with Changmin.  


  



	2. 14 February

14 February

Yunho receives roses on Valentines Day, a lot of roses. His manager hides a laugh behind a badly disguised cough. Yunho’s smile strains as the thirteenth (fourteenth?) AVEX trainee hesitantly offers him a red rose and stutters out:

‘ha- happy Valentines Day, sempai,’ turns red and then runs away.

And it was a boy this time.

Whoever thought of allowing trainees to watch their rehearsal would be hearing from him personally.

‘Don’t say a word,’ Yunho warns his manager and mentally prepares a hit list of people who could possibly be responsible for this prank, starting with the Super Junior members.

By afternoon, he’s absolutely fuming because his mother had called and apparently someone had flowers delivered to his hometown and can Yunho please tell his admirers that his father prefers flowers in pots because he’ll have a bit of a garden going at this rate?

He rounds a corner and sees Changmin struggling to stuff chocolate into his mouth while balancing colourfully wrapped boxes under his arms.

‘We should spend Valentines Day in Japan more often,’ Changmin says. The right corner of his mouth sticks out like he had moved a piece of chocolate to that side so that he could talk. 

‘Can I have some?’ Yunho asks, thinking sugar might cure his homicidal mood.

Changmin turns away from him protectively.

‘Get your own,’ he says and then breaks into a run.

Yunho stares at his retreating back for half a minute before tucking his phone into his pants and running after him.

They run across the backstage area and then Changmin jumps onto the stage and bolts down the length of it. Yunho is momentarily distracted by the chocolate boxes that drop behind Changmin.

‘Don’t waste food!’ he calls and feels like he’s twenty-one again, running after a nineteen year old Changmin who hadn’t wanted to share his bento. The concert venues were smaller then, they hadn’t performed at the domes yet.

Changmin runs between the seats, through the arena stands and nearly runs over a cleaner. Yunho pauses, panting, to apologise and bow before giving chase again. Yunho cuts across the seats, dropping low as he keeps an eye on Changmin’s position.

He briefly sees Changmin pause at the last row of the first floor, panting as he leans over a seat, probably trying to find Yunho. He’s still there when Yunho slips out through one of exits and back into the stands to grab Changmin from behind. 

Changmin yelps, trying to turn around, but Yunho’s arm around his waist holds him in place. Then Changmin’s ankle trips Yunho’s, which in hindsight was really a stupid move, and sends them back crashing into a row of seats.

They both groan, limbs tangled and probably bruised. 

‘You have to stop doing that,’ Yunho says, trying to sit up. He pushes at Changmin, who’s ended up half lying on top of him.

‘Doing what?’ Changmin pries Yunho’s hands away, and refuses to bulge. There is a sigh, before he feels Yunho leaning back to lie down again.

‘Randomly running away from me, we’re not kids anymore.’

‘I can do whatever I want. It’s not random. Don’t think I didn’t see how you were eying my chocolates.’

‘You dropped most of them while running.’

‘I wasn’t going to let you catch me.’

‘Well, I got you this time!’

Changmin rolls his eyes at the smugness in Yunho’s voice. He digs an elbow into Yunho’s stomach in retaliation, which then leads to some more struggling and both of them falling off the row of seats onto the cold floor.

Yunho has one hand on Changmin’s forearm and another in his hair when their manager finds them. 

‘Not again,’ he says and sighs dramatically. ‘You’d think after all these years you two would be sick of playing childish games.’

‘Not my fault Yunho hyung likes to chase people around before concerts,’ Changmin says. He winces when Yunho’s fingers tighten in his hair.

‘Then stop running away from me.’ His voice is thick and warm against Changmin’s ear.

They untangle themselves and finish rehearsing. 

 

Yunho is changing outfits when his stylist hands him a rose. 

‘Some trainee kid asked me to give it to you,’ she says with a shrug, ‘there was a card but I forgot where I put it.’

Beside him, Changmin laughs and then tries to pull a straight face when Yunho glares at him.

‘Didn’t know you liked flowers.’

‘I didn’t know either,’ Yunho says drily. 

‘Good thing I took the chocolates then,’ Changmin says. He is fixing his hair in the mirror, but Yunho sees how Changmin’s eyes slide towards him before moving back to his own reflection. 

‘What did you do, Changmin,’ Yunho asks, it sounding more like an accusation than a question.

‘I didn’t mean for it to turn out like this, I swear!’ Changmin says and takes a few steps back.

Yunho invades his personal space in three strides. Changmin tries to take another step back, but finds his back against the wall.

‘There was a girl trainee,’ he starts, and gulps. Yunho’s eyes flicker downwards and watch the movement of Changmin’s adam’s apple as he swallows.

‘She was outside the dressing room in the morning with chocolates and flowers and might have said something about it being Valentine’s Day. She was blocking the doorway, so I thanked her for the chocolates and I didn’t really want the flowers so I told her to give them to you.’

When Yunho doesn’t respond right away, he places a hand on Yunho’s chest and pushes slightly. Yunho steps back.

‘Hyung?’

‘So you’re the reason my father’s starting a garden?’

‘Yes?’ Changmin says, unsure of what the question meant.

Yunho walks away and picks up his costume jacket. Their stylist glances between them uncertainly before moving to help Yunho with his accessories. 

 

After the concert, Yunho pulls Changmin aside before they reach the dressing room. They are both sweaty and Changmin’s heart is still racing from the adrenaline.

‘Happy Valentine’s Day,’ Yunho says with a grin that has Changmin staring at him in confusion.

‘I’ve left your present in your car.’

Then he runs off. 

They don’t talk as they change out of their costumes and get ready to leave. Changmin briefly notices that all the roses that had invaded their dressing room were now gone. He takes a shower, while Yunho leaves first. Changmin nearly asks Yunho to wait for him, but then he remembers that Yunho has apparently brought him a Valentine’s Day present and has left it in his car and he feels a little warm and embarrassed just thinking about. 

He finds his car keys lying innocently next to his bag after his shower and wonders when Yunho had borrowed them. 

The car wasn’t in the spot he had left it. Changmin looks around a little worried, only to find it parked on the other side of the road, under a street lamp. As he walks closer, he notices dark shadows inside the car. It is the smell that hits him first, before he even makes out the shapes under the street lamp. There are roses inside his car. Lots of them.

The entire space inside the rental car appears to be filled with roses and they spill out when Changmin opens a door.

Changmin swears and wonder how many people Yunho had enlisted to set this up. He takes out his phone angrily and sends a text to Yunho:

_What am I going to say to the car rental company?_

The reply came within the minute:

_Happy Valentine’s Day, Changminnie! ☺☺☺_

Changmin swears aloud and slams the car door. 

 

He is in the taxi watching the meter when he suddenly smiles. Yunho doesn’t pull pranks often, but when he does, they were never small. He thinks about all the silly things they had done together, about how mature Yunho is when in front of the cameras and about how the staff must think they’re mad, chasing each other around Sapporo dome and pulling pranks on each other like teenagers instead of grown men nearing thirty. 

Yunho may be known as the responsible leader, but to Changmin, he is sometimes silly and often annoying and occasionally wise. Yunho is a constant in his life and the fact that being together is still so much _fun_ after all these years gives him a warm feeling in his stomach.

Yunho had got him this time. But Changmin considers himself the planner of the pair and he smiles uncontrollably as he marks White Day on his calendar for a little payback.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to my beta, the lovely amna (madamteatime). Happy Valentine's Day, everyone ♥


	3. 18 February

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Changmin waits impatiently for the entire morning for Yunho to acknowledge his birthday.

Changmin waits impatiently for the entire morning for Yunho to acknowledge his birthday.

By late afternoon, he is so annoyed he vows never to call Yunho ‘hyung’ ever again. The idiot didn’t deserve it. Not when Changmin had gotten him a (cup)cake and (one) candle for his birthday. Changmin had even refrained from retaliating after the Valentine’s Day incident.

He’d settle for well wishes and maybe a cupcake, but Yunho didn’t even wish him a happy birthday.

‘Yunho,’ he snaps, walking into the living room, ‘we need to go to the supermarket.’

Yunho looks up from his manga. ‘Okay Changmin.’

‘Yunho,’ he snaps, pointing to the refrigerated section at the supermarket, ‘I want to eat meat.’

‘Yunho,’ he snaps, and pushes a bundle of manga into Yunho’s arms in the bookstore, ‘I want to read these.’

‘Yunho,’ he snaps, waiting by the car empty handed while Yunho struggles with bags of groceries and books. ‘Hurry up.’

‘Yunho,’ he snaps, as he looks out of the car window at the passing stores, ‘I want to go to a bakery.’

‘Yunho,’ he snaps, standing by the door as Yunho fumbles with the keys to the apartment, ‘I don’t want the fruit cake anymore, I want a cheesecake.’

Yunho opens the door, steps inside, and shuts the door in Changmin’s face.

‘Yunho!’ he shouts, banging on the door, ‘I’ll have the fruit cake after all!’

The door creeps open. Yunho sighs as he lets Changmin in.

‘What is your problem today?’

Changmin decides he still can’t let it go. ‘I don’t know, Yunho, what do you think?’

Yunho frowns at him. ‘Why do you keep repeating my name?’

‘I don’t know what you mean, Yunho.’

Yunho throws his hands up with a frustrated groan and walks away.

‘Yunho!’ Changmin yells after him, ‘make dinner!’

They end up making dinner together, because Changmin catches Yunho preparing the meat and nearly has a heart attack. Dinner is an awkward affair, mainly because despite dragging Yunho around town and having him partially cook dinner, Changmin is still angry with him.

‘Yunho, I want to drink beer.’

Yunho glares at him before rising from his seat and heading into the kitchen.

‘Yunho, pass the clean bowls.’

‘Yunho, pass the tissues.’

‘Yunho, pass the water.’

Yunho looks relieved when dinner is over. His mood seems considerably better when he brings out the cake. They set fresh plates and cutlery on the table.

Changmin eyes at the plain looking cake in dismay.

‘Yunho,’ he says, getting up from his seat. ‘I’m not hungry anymore.’

There is a hand on his arm preventing him from leaving the table. Yunho stands up and walks around to his side of the table.

‘Maybe you will like the cake better with a bit of decoration?’ he asks. He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out what looks like a box of small candles. Yunho rips the top of the box open gracelessly and the candles spill onto the table in a rainbow of colours.

Changmin stares as Yunho picks up the candles one by one and starts placing them on top of the cake. Yunho hums softly as he counts the candles. A moment later, the lights are off and Yunho is singing Happy Birthday to him a little too enthusiastically, leaving Changmin confused and feeling slightly disorientated. When it’s over, there’s a knife in his hand, hovering over the cake.

‘What…’

‘Cut the cake, Changminnie!’

Changmin slams the knife on the table.

‘You knew,’ he accuses. ‘You remembered!’

Yunho is giving him an innocent grin that he knows is absolutely wicked.

‘I thought we agreed not to do Birthdays.’

Changmin splutters.

Yunho laughs, finally taking pity on him. 

‘Of course I remembered your birthday. I just didn’t think you would get so upset.’

‘I bought you a cupcake for your birthday, it would be rude if you didn’t even remember mine,’ Changmin reasons.

‘Actually there’re two cupcakes in the fridge,’ Yunho admits, ‘I got the candles too. I thought we would have fun trying to stick as many candles as we could on the cupcakes.’

‘Why … why did you agree to go out and buy all that stuff when you had cupcakes in the fridge?’ 

Yunho smiles at him. 

‘Because you asked me to.’

Changmin thinks his ears feel a little warm.

‘Now call me hyung.’

‘Hyung,’ Changmin says obligingly.

Later that night, when Changmin tosses in bed, unable to sleep, he couldn’t help but feel as though he had been played a little.


	4. 14 March

Changmin waits until he hears the shower running before springing into action. He opens Yunho’s suitcase and dashes around the hotel room, picking up clothes from the bed as well of those casually flung over armchairs and onto the floor.

By the time Yunho walks out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist, Changmin is making his way towards the door.

‘Changminnie, have you seen the briefs I left on the bed?’

‘No.’

Yunho looks around the room in confusion.

‘Did you tidy the room up or something? Where are my clothes?’

‘I don’t know, hyung,’ Changmin shrugs and has to bite on his tongue to keep himself from smiling.

‘Anyway, I’m going downstairs before the hotel stops serving breakfast.’

He briskly walks out of the room, ignoring Yunho’s confused protests.

 

 

Changmin is smiling into his miso soup when he spots Yunho walking into the restaurant. He swallows a mouthful of soup the wrong way.

Yunho is supposed to be sitting in the hotel room wearing nothing but a towel, freaking out alone, but unable to do anything until Changmin came back. He had hoped to maybe coerce Yunho into calling him ‘hyung’ a few times before giving him his clothes back.

Instead, Yunho is rubbing his back soothingly while he coughs all over his breakfast. His eyes burn from the force of the coughing fit. When he’s breathing normally again, Yunho takes a seat across the table from him and studies the menu.

‘Is the Japanese style breakfast set nice? Should I get the western set?’

There is something odd about the way Yunho looked and Changmin squints at him through watery eyes.

Yunho’s sweater is rather… tight. Changmin blinks.

‘That’s my sweater!’

‘Yes,’ Yunho says and then attempts to steal half of Changmin’s salmon. Changmin waves his chopsticks at him in jabbing motions, before Yunho backs off and signals a waiter to order another Japanese style breakfast set for himself.

Changmin leans down and draws up the tablecloth to look underneath the table.

‘You’re wearing my jeans!’ he cries, staring at Yunho’s denim clad thighs.

Yunho squirms and Changmin quickly lets the tablecloth fall. He hits his head on the bottom of the table in his rush to sit up.

‘I picked one of your older pairs, they had more room to give, but…’ He squirms again, ‘they are still very tight.’

Yunho is wearing his favourite jeans, the pair that Changmin lounges around in because they were super soft and baggy from years of wear. They don’t even look like the same pair of jean now, from the way the material clung to Yunho’s legs.

Changmin suddenly remembers that Yunho was looking for a pair of briefs when he appeared from the bathroom. He wonders if Yunho is going commando while wearing his jeans. He swallows audibly.

‘You can’t just… wear my stuff!’

Yunho gives him a strange look.

‘You hid all my clothes,’ he says simply. ‘Plus, you wear my clothes all the time.’

‘Not _all_ the time,’ Changmin protests weakly.

‘Are you going to give me my clothes back?’

Changmin ignores him.

The prank is supposed to make Yunho suffer a little, yet the only person who seems to be suffering, is Changmin.

 

 

One hour into rehearsal, Yunho does appear to be suffering. He pulls at the jeans, frustrated that his movements were more restricted than usual. Changmin briefly wonders if the jeans were causing him discomfort for other reasons and promptly feels his ears burn.

By the time they start getting ready for the concert, they are both a little on edge. Changmin escapes the hair stylist to find Yunho already dressed in his opening costume in the waiting room.

‘Hey,’ Yunho says and grabs his arm. Changmin is pulled to the corner of the room with Yunho suddenly invading his personal space. The staff members in the room shoot glances toward them, before directing their attention elsewhere.

‘Here,’ Yunho says and Changmin feels something being pushed into his hands. He looks down to find a bar of chocolate.

‘What is this?’

‘A gift. A peace offering,’ Yunho says. ‘I’m sorry I got you in trouble with the rental car company over the Valentines Day incident.’

Changmin suddenly feels very small. He had planned to give Yunho his clothes back after breakfast; he hadn’t meant to make Yunho uncomfortable for the whole day.

‘I know we’re been kind of pranking each other lately, and it’s been fun,’ Yunho continues, ‘but I don’t want it to affect our performances on the stage.’

Changmin pushes the chocolate bar back toward Yunho.

‘No, you have it. I shouldn’t have hid your clothes,’ Changmin says softly.

Yunho pats his cheek affectionately.

‘We can share.’

 

 

Later that night, when Yunho is in the shower, Changmin drags Yunho’s suitcase back from one of their dancer’s rooms. Yunho is wearing a towel around his waist when Changmin returns.

‘My clothes!’ he cries and Changmin moves out of the way as Yunho rushes to unzip his suitcase.

‘I’ve left your clothes on the bed,’ he says over his shoulder.

Changmin gathers the folded sweater and jeans from the bed. Something falls from between the folds of the clothing onto the floor. Changmin picks up a pair of dark briefs.

They look familiar.

He then looks more closely at all three items of clothing.

‘YOU’VE STRETCHED THEM!’


End file.
